They remove some hair, and give you a face which looks as though it has been shaved, but after using them you need to shave.

In the field, there's little so morale boosting as clean teeth and a clean, freshly shaven face. Do it properly and you'll last for ever in the khuds; skimp and you'll be the one at the back, wishing you'd joined the Navy.

All those adverts for electric razors on the telly are complete bull. I go through phases of using an electric, but only because blades are outrageously expensive and it flips my outrage button. Then, after a while, it does my head in and I go back to Mach 3 types.

I like to wet shave Sunday Night First thing Monday for a fresh Look for the beginning of the week but the rest of the week I use a Philishave 40 (cheap 2 heads)
I have to look good every day and this has never let me down.
I give my skin a Day off once a week and annoy the wife with my beardy weirdie look.
I don't do the man products thing as that is way too Ladyboy but King of shaves gel is the best thing I have ever used in a foam gel.

1. When we rocked up at the Drill Hall on a Friday night, but didn't move out until Saturday morning. Having a battery shaver meant that I could shave while the other 119 blokes fought over the three sinks. A splash of cold water from the vehicle wash hose outside sorted the washing side of things. (Only the first 20 blokes at the sinks got hot water anyway).

2. When I woke up late and had to drive to a work appointment. The battery shaver was always in the glove compartment for just such an eventality. But how much time did it really save? A wet shave only takes a minute if you're brave and ruthless. An electric shave takes five minutes then another one repeated 10 times as you rub your chin and find that you've missed bits. I now save lots of time by growing a beard between TA commitments. Yet another advantage of being a speshul soldier.

In days of yore, you could tell which soldiers used an electric shaver - they were the ones who complained about the roughness of KF shirts and exchanged them frequently due to the collar wearing out.

In Barracks wet shave all the time. On exercise its easy, those annoying stags during the night - simply get razor out of belt kit, dampen rag with some water and wet area to be shaved. The very slowly over the course of two hours whislt scanning your arcs shave extremly slowly - almost a hair at a time. Keeps you awake and saves time. Does not affect your allertness either unless you a mong that cannot focus on more than one thing at time. Did me for years and never fell asleep as it was so painfull.

I find the opposite is the case, I use a beard trimmer because all of these modern razors with ten diamond encrusted blades on etc tear my face up and give me ingrown hairs. I'm going to try a cut throat next. Why mess with tradition? Who needs umpteen blades?